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New beekeeper's bees are GONE!

Hey folks,

My hubby and I started beekeeping last spring with a new 10 frame hive. The bees and their queen seemed to adjust well and started building out the frames with honey and brood just as expected. They seemed happy with no signs of any disease or pest until afer the first frost this fall. We hadn't checked them for a couple weeks and the next time we checked them, the bees were gone. There were some dead bees ob the ground beneath the hive. There were several dead bees attached to the comb.

They had large honey stores and we were going to be supplementing with bee food as well, but it hadn't gotten cold yet and we hadn't taken any of their honey.

Another thing to note: we had two empty boxes (with frames with some wax but no honey) above the two built out supers. Would this have caused the hive to be too cold?

Why would a hive leave/disappear during the fall?

Also, if we start again next fall, should we remove all the wax/honey when we add in the new hive or should we strip all that down to the frame?

Re: New beekeeper's bees are GONE!

No, we didn't treat for varroa. We didn't do a check for the mites with the grid paper at all last summer. I'll take a closer look for the mite poop.

If I use the potentially mite-infested drawn frames with new bees, would that be a problem? Would the mite eggs cause problems for the new hive or how would treatment be approached? Prior to introducing the new colony?

Also, what is a natural method for varroa treatment? Or are there only chemicals?

If anyone has any other ideas about why my bees disappeared in the fall, please chime in!

Originally Posted by BeeGhost

Just curious, but did you treat for mites in the fall? I didn't treat for mites and I had one hive die completely and one hive abscond which means they left the hive, no dead bees to be found.

Your bees might have left due to a heavy Varroa mite load as mine did. Take out a brood comb and look for white specks in the cell, that is mite poop.

Re: New beekeeper's bees are GONE!

Mite eggs are laid on developing larva, without live larva, the mites and any eggs will die, leaving you with mite free comb which you will be able use this year! I uncapped almost all the cells on my first dead out and found deformed wings on the older larva and also dead mites on some of the larva as well.

As for treatment free, go to the treatment free forum and do lots of searching, good info in there if you are going to continue to go that route!

I myself am going to use oxalic acid vaporizing method this year as its naturally found in honey and other leafy greens like rhubarb and it doesn't harm the bees, but from what I have been told and read about, it knocks the mite loads down up into the 90%+ range!

Re: New beekeeper's bees are GONE!

Freeze those frames to kill the eggs and they will be good to use with your new bees. I would definitely have taken the boxes of foundation off the hives in the fall. Wax making ends long before the autumn chill sets in so two boxes of foundation are just useless space that the girls have to heat. I can see that they might abscond over something so simple. In this era of varroa and SHB my mantra is "strong bees in a space no larger than they can patrol."

Re: New beekeeper's bees are GONE!

Mites die soon after the bees, don't worry about re-infestation from mites in old comb. Waxmoth and SHB is a different storry which is why Tia suggested freezing. You really need to monitor for mites or at least look for them. If you see DWV or phoretic mites on bees sitting on the landing board you have a high infestation of mites. Whether or not you treat is up to you but you need to do something to break the cycle and let your bees build up enough for the winter cluster. Healthy hives crash the hardest, and then you're left with a small cluster of bees and that first frost hits and they all freeze or you lose a bunch more bees and your cluster is now too small to survive and now you have an empty hive.

Re: New beekeeper's bees are GONE!

Thanks for all the help, everyone. We never had mites on the landing board, but this next season, we will monitor for them and do counts and treat as necessary.

Fortunately the nighttime lows are below freezing, so any eggs left behind by anything should be quite dead come spring! Looking forward to starting another colony.

Thanks again to all for the insight. Blessings to everyone and their bees!

Originally Posted by JRG13

Mites die soon after the bees, don't worry about re-infestation from mites in old comb. Waxmoth and SHB is a different storry which is why Tia suggested freezing. You really need to monitor for mites or at least look for them. If you see DWV or phoretic mites on bees sitting on the landing board you have a high infestation of mites. Whether or not you treat is up to you but you need to do something to break the cycle and let your bees build up enough for the winter cluster. Healthy hives crash the hardest, and then you're left with a small cluster of bees and that first frost hits and they all freeze or you lose a bunch more bees and your cluster is now too small to survive and now you have an empty hive.

Re: New beekeeper's bees are GONE!

You will need to monitor more than the landing board.
I suggest you join the local bee club and spend these cold days reading beekeeping books to get a better feel for the work required to keep bees.
Good Luck, Mike

"Wine is a constant proof that God loves us and loves to see us happy" Ben Franklin

Re: New beekeeper's bees are GONE!

Below freezing or not, it's not a good idea to leave deadouts in your apiary. At the very least you should take the deadouts apart and store the boxes in your bee shed. If you have a warm day, you could have other insects checking out the remains, and their visits could leave you with bigger problems.

Re: New beekeeper's bees are GONE!

I am not sure why you would start again on the next fall. Spring is here so you can buy a new package or a nuc bees. Take this opportunity to get a new Spring bee and learn from it. At least you can observe how the hive build up and learn to manage them better. I have been actively monitoring my hive since late last Fall. They are doing o.k. now.
In term of being cold, it is better to add one box at a time as the bees expand on hive check day. Put box on when they are crowded otherwise they will swarm. I found out adding extra space no use when the colony not that big yet because the bees just scattered around the different frames and not able to keep themselves warm in a cold day that well.
If the honey/wax is usable then put some frames in but not all. You want some space for the queen to lay eggs too. It is better than leaving the hive without any combs at all. Many people here recommend on the nuc bees instead of a pacage. But you have to do what is best in your area. Buy 2 hives instead of one just for the learning. If one hive die then you have the other one to manage. Of course, nobody knows why the bee would leave or disappear from their hive. You have to investigate your hive to see. They do things that we do not understand yet. For for learning you can goto youtube and watch CCD documentary as well many other methods of raising honey bees. Also, watch the AHB 4 part series. Fun to understand them more.

Re: New beekeeper's bees are GONE!

Tia does have a point, although it is freezing out now, a mouse could still easily move in, or if it warms up enough, wax moths can move in and create a large mess! Do what she suggested and store them somewhere till spring and that will be the time to buy a package like what was mentioned. In other words, start looking for packages now and get your name on the list before its to late!

Re: New beekeeper's bees are GONE!

Here's my experience. I was ran 3 hives last year and helped another individual with a single hive. We treated two hives for mites. The other two hives were not treated. Guess what?? All bees in the untreated hives just simply vanished . . . yup. Just vanished. It's pretty bad when the bees would rather leave a hive than live with an infestation. As of January, the two treated hives are still alive. Keeping my fingers crossed.

Re: New beekeeper's bees are GONE!

I didn't mean to just look at bees on the landing area for mites to monitor, but it's pretty easy to see bees with mites on them if you have decent pressure. Look for bees trying to groom something off other bees, typically between the abdomen and thorax. Easiest way is to uncap some drone brood during inspections if you don't have a drop tray.

Re: New beekeeper's bees are GONE!

Originally Posted by inthenightkitchen

Hey folks,

My hubby and I started beekeeping last spring with a new 10 frame hive. The bees and their queen seemed to adjust well and started building out the frames with honey and brood just as expected. They seemed happy with no signs of any disease or pest until afer the first frost this fall. We hadn't checked them for a couple weeks and the next time we checked them, the bees were gone. There were some dead bees ob the ground beneath the hive. There were several dead bees attached to the comb.

They had large honey stores and we were going to be supplementing with bee food as well, but it hadn't gotten cold yet and we hadn't taken any of their honey.

Another thing to note: we had two empty boxes (with frames with some wax but no honey) above the two built out supers. Would this have caused the hive to be too cold?

Why would a hive leave/disappear during the fall?

Also, if we start again next fall, should we remove all the wax/honey when we add in the new hive or should we strip all that down to the frame?